Two Drivers, One Road, and a Resource Built for Truckers

Driver Spotlight

Janne Owens and Michael Erb: Two Drivers, One Road, and a Resource Built for Truckers

For Janne Owens and Michael Erb, trucking has become much more than a career. It is a way of life, one that has taken them across the country, challenged them individually and together, and eventually led them to create a resource for the industry they call home.

Their paths into trucking began decades apart.

Michael began driving over the road in 1990, shortly after completing five years of service in the United States Army. Over what has now become a 36-year career, he has owned multiple trucks and hauled freight using a wide variety of equipment, including flatbed, four-axle RGN, refrigerated trailers, dry vans, mobile homes, automobiles on a 10-car stinger, construction equipment, and temperature-controlled medical products.

His work has taken him through all 48 contiguous states and several provinces of Canada.

Janne began her trucking journey in 2018 when she enrolled in a four-month truck-driving school. After completing her training, she entered the industry and began building her own experience behind the wheel.

Throughout her career, Janne has hauled both refrigerated trailers and dry vans and has traveled throughout all 48 contiguous states.

Today, Michael and Janne work together.

For the past two years, they have been running as a husband-and-wife driving team, currently specializing in temperature-controlled pharmaceutical transportation and hazardous materials.

Team driving allows them to keep the truck moving for longer periods while sharing the responsibilities that come with long-haul transportation. Their work demands teamwork, communication, trust, and the ability to adjust together when the road refuses to cooperate with the plan.

But for Janne, there wasn’t one particular moment when trucking stopped being something they did and became something larger.

“I don’t know that there was ever one particular moment. Somewhere along the way trucking just became part of who we are. Mike and I have spent so much of our lives around trucks, drivers and this industry that it’s hard to separate the job from the life anymore.”

“You see this country differently from behind the wheel. You meet people from every walk of life, you see what it actually takes to keep things moving, and you learn very quickly how much of this country depends on people most will never know by name.”

“It isn’t always an easy life. There are long days, missed holidays, sacrifices and plenty of frustration. But there’s also something about this industry that gets in your blood. The people, the independence, the trucks, the road and even the craziness of it all. For all its faults, I still love trucking and I can’t imagine not being part of it.”

Their involvement in trucking eventually grew beyond the work they were doing from the cab.

The idea was simple: create a place where people throughout trucking could find useful information, resources, and voices that might otherwise remain scattered across dozens of different places.

The website includes information about trucking advocates, music, books, petitions, bills and proposed legislation affecting the industry, along with other resources intended to help people in transportation stay informed and connected.

But Janne is careful about what the website is, and what it isn’t.

“I wish people understood that Mike and I aren’t trying to build an organization or tell the trucking industry what to think. We’re truck drivers ourselves. We built WeTheTruckers.com because we kept seeing incredible people, information and resources scattered everywhere, and we thought there should be one place where people could find them.”

“There are advocates doing important work, drivers with something worth saying, organizations, podcasts, books, music, resources and information that people may never find simply because they’re spread across dozens of different platforms.”

“We The Truckers was created to help connect those dots, bridge the gaps.”

“We don’t charge people to be listed and we aren’t aligned with one advocate, organization or point of view. People in this industry don’t always agree, and that’s okay. In fact, I think that’s important. Our goal has always been to give people a place to find the information, hear different voices and decide for themselves.”

For Michael, the website is an extension of the same industry he has spent 36 years serving. It combines decades of road experience with a desire to help truckers stay informed about the issues, people, and decisions that affect their livelihoods.

For Janne, what they have built together has become deeply personal.

“What I probably wish people understood most is how personal this has become for us. We built the website because we genuinely love this industry and the people in it. We’ve invested an enormous amount of time, work and our own money into it, not because somebody hired us to do it, but because we believe trucking deserves a place that belongs to the people actually living it.”

Michael and Janne continue to maintain and expand WeTheTruckers.com while remaining active over-the-road drivers. They aren’t observing trucking from outside the industry. They are still living it: running freight, dealing with weather, schedules, regulations, changing conditions, and the realities professional drivers encounter every day.

Their individual histories in trucking are different. Michael brings more than three decades of experience across numerous types of freight and equipment. Janne entered the industry much later and has built her own career and perspective from behind the wheel.

Today, those two histories share the same truck.

And the resource they created together grew from what they have seen there.